UPDATE: How to Download and Install GTA 5 For the Xbox 360 Without Leaving Your Home

After months of waiting, it’s finally here. GTA V has hit its release date and is available for purchase right now. Hold on a sec, sit back down. You don’t have to jump up and run to your local game retailer, save that gas. I don’t know if you’ve been informed, but with an XBOX Live account, you can download the game directly to your 360. I’m not entirely sure what happened with the whole Pre-Load debacle, but wouldn’t you prefer a nice sit on the couch instead of dealing with traffic, parking, lines, cost of gas, and worse of all, actual people? My dear agoraphobes, introverts and shut-ins, once again, I have you covered. Here are 6 steps to playing GTA V without leaving your living room.

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Update:

Because of how the entire Games on Demand is set up, GTA 5 is not currently available for download via Xbox Live, but will be once Rockstar gets the go ahead from Microsoft. Comments on their official page state:

“For those asking about digital pre-orders on Xbox LIVE, the Xbox 360 Games on Demand service does not offer the ability to pre-order games or make them available on launch day,”

“That being said, we will be making GTAV available via Games on Demand as soon as it’s technically feasible and permitted by Microsoft.”

Once this issue has been resolved, the following steps should still work, as long as the UI doesn’t change between now and then.

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Step 1 – Get an Xbox Live account

If you’ve either been locked up in a cage for the last decade or just so happen to be my grandmother, (just yesterday, she made the great accomplishment of learning the difference between the home and power buttons on her iPad), Xbox Live is the system that enabled you to track your gaming scores, interact with other players, stream, and of course, purchase and download games. So you’re going to need an account.

Step 2 – Fund your Xbox Live account

While many games are free, GTA V isn’t one of ’em. Or is it? If you plan on buying games from your couch, you’re going to have to supply the funds to do so.

Step 3 – (Probably) Update your Xbox

Every five or six times I turn on the 360 it needs to update for a few minutes. I don’t know what for, I don’t know how long it’ll take, and yours may not need one, but just in case it asks, don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Step 4 – Sign in to Xbox Live on your 360

As stated above, Xbox Live is what gives you the ability to legally download games to your 360, if you’re not logged in, they aren’t going to be able to track your purchase, are they?

Step 5 – Find GTA V in the game store

At the top of your screen, you’ll see bing, home, social, games, TV & more, yadda yadda… Use your controller to select the games page. Of the three options on the left side of the boxy games thing, select search games. Alternatively, you can select browse and do a visual search, but I’m not guiding you through that. Once the search form pops up, type in GTA V and hit done. The image for GTA V should pop up and we’re ready to buy.

Step 6 – Purchase and Download

In addition to the game image, you should see the points/$ required to purchase the game ($59.99) and the options to buy game and download to Xbox 360. You want to select the download option.Follow the steps on screen to complete and confirm your purchase.

That’s it, GTA V is soon to be yours. While it’s downloading, do something proactive. Make a sandwich, open a beer, read more of our GTA articles. Let me warn you, the entire world is downloading the game right now, so the transfer rate may be a bit slow for a couple of days. Don’t sweat it, the hours you’ll spend playing the game will swiftly dwarf your current wait time. Oh man, I can’t wait for GTA Online.

Jordan Goodson, the geek in the darkness, guiding his readers through the vast catacombs of tech and science. He journeys the interwebs searching for any and all relevant data to be absorbed and shared.

i cant download the game on Xbox live…. and the stores dosn’t have the game…. when are mircosoft going to release the F*****G game then!! im thinking about changing to PS3-4 because of all them delays microsoft have….

I would rather buy games on the Marketplace as to save money and grief from a breakable disk but i can’t help but notice how advanced GTA 5’s game is and be skeptical about it’s availability to the online Marketplace, as i know this may just be a silly thought by myself and other i can also point out that Battlefield 3 also does not have a base download on the marketplace, only Premium and other DLC add-ons but then again the game does use 2 separate disks. all we can do is hope GTA 5 does hit the Virtual Market.

Leave it to the Internet to have useless and misleading information. I’m going to go get that beer you mentioned while I await it’s availability, then maybe I’ll have time to learn how to purchase a game on my Xbox. You don’t think my beer will get warm while I’m waiting, do you? Perhaps you could write an article for me on how to keep my beer cold while waiting?

good way to get some traffic to your site : post a tutorial on something people ARE waiting and checking for availability on as if it already exists.

well played.

Especially because you posted this structured (and with such arrogance like ” you can select browse and do a visual search, but I’m not guiding you through that.”) like we’re all idiots and don’t know how to dl content on our systems.

Hey Adam, So we’re actually writing this because SOME people won’t know how, or don’t know how this is a viable option. Moreover, they may have no clue how to download content, so you’re comment is a sweeping generalization and one that you might want to rethink. That said, the title accurately represents what the article is about, and yes, like you we were anticipating that it would be ready and downloadable.

While attempting to get this info out as soon as possible, the piece was written based on familiarity with purchasing and downloading games. Check the updated edit for further info from Rockstar concerning Xbox download availability.

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